Sinn Féin's acceptance of policing and the rule of law in Northern Ireland, followed by concrete evidence on the ground that its position has changed, should be enough to satisfy the Democratic Unionist Party, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
Speaking in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yesterday, Mr Ahern welcomed the decision of the Sinn Féin ardcomhairle on Saturday to call a special ardfheis later this month, although he acknowledged the difficulties the issue poses for the party's leadership.
"I have read the Sinn Féin motion and the context of it and I have been listening to what they have said around it. Everybody will be looking for a positive follow-up after the ardfheis, but we have to get to that stage first.
"Sinn Féin understand how important, indeed how vital it will be following a positive decision of their ardfheis to see the earliest possible signs of a change of attitude and approach towards policing on the ground in Northern Ireland.
"Such a change in attitude and approach will be entirely logical in the light of the comprehensive support for policing that the ardfheis motion embraces. This will help greatly to generate confidence all around a new future for policing.
"I welcome what Sinn Féin has achieved and I hope obviously that they can get it through successfully and I then hope that we see the possible change in attitude come into effect on the ground as quickly as possible," he told The Irish Times.
"If we see that taking effect on the ground I think any reasonable person should say then that we have dealt with the obstacles and that we should be able to move forward.
"An unreasonable person will try to find grounds to pick on and try to hold us back but I think they would have to be seen as unreasonable people," he said.
Acknowledging that there is a degree of conditionality in the text of the motion to go before the ardfheis, Mr Ahern said: "It would be great if it wasn't there, but the reason it is there is because we were not able to make the progress that we thought over the new year, and the various statements from Dr Paisley and the DUP.
"I spoke to Dr Paisley at length, and while I have some concerns about how all of this will pan out in the next period, Tony Blair has had even more conversations with him than I have had and he is confident that if we get the ardfheis dealt with this month then that will allow us to make a decision on the election.
"We will do that in the next few weeks, and then, if at the same time we saw movement and saw action [on the ground in the shape of Sinn Féin support for the PSNI] this would be hugely helpful and would feed into confidence in the DUP.
"There are some people in the DUP, to be frank about it, who will highlight issues and not be satisfied. But we have brought this a huge way forward and hopefully if we get to the other side of the ardfheis - and I am not saying that that is an easy task for Sinn Féin either - but if we get to the other side of that and then if we can see confidence on the ground it would help greatly. So the next two weeks and the next two months are going to be absolutely crucial," he said.
